Self Help Group: A Hope for Women Empowerment in India

SHG is a small group of rural poor, who have voluntarily come forward to form a group for improvement of the social and economic status of the members. SHGs are novel and innovative organizational setup in India for the women upliftment and welfare. All women in India are given chance to join any one of SHGs for training and development, so as to be prospective entrepreneur and skilled worker. An SHG is an informal association of 10 to 20 poor women belonging to the same village and sharing a common socioeconomic background. The group enables its members to gain their identity as individuals, while realizing ? and utilizing ? the immense power of mutual aid. It provides them with a platform from where they can access banks and public services, and spearhead changes that affect them as poor women. Though it is applicable to men in our country, but it has been more successful only among women and they can start economic activities through SHG movement. In India, this scheme is implemented with the help of NABARD as a main nodal agency in rural development. It is self employment generation scheme for especially rural women, who don't have their own assets So Women empowerment by self help group means making the woman self-dependent financially. The present study is an attempt to analyze the role and performance of SHGs in promoting women's empowerment in India. Keywords: - Women Empowerment, NABARD, Poverty Alleviation, Self employment, SHG